German Royalty. First king of Bavaria, as Maximilian IV. Joseph Elector of Bavaria. He was born in Mannheim as the youngest son of Count Palatine Friedrich Michael von Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld. He became a member of the french army and soon rose to the rank of major-general. In 1789 he joined the Austrian army and fought against the french revolutionary army. He succeeded his brother Karl II. as duke of Zweibrücken in 1795. In September 1785 he married Auguste Wilhelmine Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt. In the eleven years of their marriage she gave birth to five children, and died in 1796. One year later he married the twenty years younger Caroline Friederike of Baden. The elector Karl IV. Theodore of Bavaria died childless in 1799 and he succeeded him as he was the next relative. He sympathized with France and allied with Napoleon. He even married his oldest daughter, from his first marriage, to Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleons stepson. He was one of the emperors most faithful allies and as a reward the duchy of Bavaria was raised to a kingdom. Maximilian assumed the title of a king on January 1st 1806. In the same year Bavaria joined the Confederation of the Rhine. In October 1813, ten days before the Battle of Leipzig he joined the allied armies but not without the concession that his kingdom would further exist after Napoleon's fall. After the Congress of Vienna he lost some of his territory. In 1818 he signed a liberal constitution. He was very popular, his subjects affectionately called him "King Max". (bio by: Lutetia)